Jeremy and Rachel Smith

Updates

• Update 28

  

  Our story from day 1 to day 287….the short version of why and how.

  January 14, 2023

  Our story so far….Day 287. Adopt from Liberia.

  January 10, 2023Adopt100more
  People are good, with good intentions and there will always be enough good intentions for just one more kid to be adopted, no matter what the cost.

  Adoption…some of these words come to mind for those considering adoption.

  Costly, Chaotic, Traumatic, Distant, Dangerous, Impossible, Overwhelming, Heartbreaking, Risky

  When I think of adoption, I have different words….

  Healing, Miraculous, Amazing, Unlikely, Happy, Heroic, Free, Reachable

  People are good… with good intentions, and there will always be enough good intentions for just one more kid to be adopted, no matter what the cost.

  I really believe that statement. Because I’ve seen it 23 times. And we have 6 pending completions.

  When did I become convinced of this truth?

  I spent my 18th birthday in Eastern Europe on a humanitarian aid project to assist Romanian orphans. My role on the trip as a student was to represent my high school student body, and come home and speak for the orphans I met. Our trip leader was Jim Savley, founder of Small World Adoption Agency.

  I met a toddler with a scar on her head running around an orphanage happy and healthy. She was bald, which is why the scar showed. I was bald, too, until I was almost 2 years old. A fact my family jokes about as they tried to get bows and headbands on me, which I undoubtedly refused.

  She caught my eye because she looked like me. It was a commonality. When I picked her up to take a picture with me, the scar struck me. The caregivers explained she was born, thrown into a dumpster, and saved by a mama dog who apparently nursed her for up to 3 days based on her condition when she was found. She survived easily after a short hospital stay and was brought to the orphanage. The bite wound was probably from the dog pulling her out.

  As I sat her down and she toddled back to her friends, no mother, no prospects, I considered putting her in my backpack. She would have fit! I could have emptied every bit of my teenage world out and just replaced it with her, this sweet little girl, happy, healthy and waiting. I thought of how we had an extra bedroom at my house and I had a job and could afford to care for her. Maybe college could wait. Maybe it would work. How could I leave her in a place with caregivers battling a 25-1 ratio to care for babies.

  Obviously not legal, and not practical. But my connection to her ran deep. People are good. The adults that could parent her must not know that she is here. They must not know her possibilities are a secret behind the walls of this orphanage,

  I took my job to speak for her and her peers seriously. It was like a volcano in my mind of potential ideas and solutions as my young heart weighed the problem against the solutions. We need more families adopting.

  My husband and I adopted our firstborn child in 2013. Adoption was always a part of our “plan A” and as we pursued her adoption a decade ago, we met a lot of families on similar journeys.

  Cost is the number 1 barrier holding families back from the pursuit of adoption.

  But people are good, with good intentions and I am convinced that there will always be enough good intentions for just one more kid to be adopted.

  I decided to make it my “bucket list” to help 100 kids complete their adoption. We sold a fundraising T-shirt for our adoption and it said on the back “Helping 1 Home”. And I thought, “Why not 100?”

  People give more when they can connect to the recipient. Like me, with the little girl with a bald head, who reminded me of pictures of myself at her age. People connect with numbers and stories. Families remember our help, and they know their number, and we always reach for them when we join a new adoption journey in progress. It’s a lot of fun to say to them “number 22” is almost home. They are our foundation. And they are all thriving.

  As of today, we have helped 23 kids complete their adoption. Most had huge fundraising goals. We are adopting 2 daughters from Liberia now, and are helping 2 other families who are at the first phases in their Liberia adoption journey. We have one family pursuing domestic adoption and one family battling adoption from the foster care system. So, 6 kids have pending adoptions. We work on all of them weekly. 3 of those families have AdoptTogether profiles.

  We began our adoption process for our 2 Liberian daughters 287 days ago. Our adoption costs are estimated at $75,000. Here are our current fundraising goals and progress.

  1. Adopt Together Crowdfunding

  $‎ 8,357.22

  http://adopttogether.org/families/the-smith-s

  2. Give Send Go Crowdfunding

  $‎ 1,546.35

  https://givesendgo.com/G37XF?utm_source=sharelink&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=G37XF

  3. Funds 2 orgs shoe drive

  $‎ 2,058.00

  https://funds2orgs.com/

  4. Gift of Adoption grant (pending)

  $7000.00

  5. Noonday Ambassador Sales by Ivonne (included in Adopt together amount ($1200).

  https://ivonneliebenberg.noondaycollection.com

  6. Noonday Ambassador Sales by Me

  $‎ 580.09

  https://rachelsmith.noondaycollection.com

  7. Phill the Box clothing and Textile Drive

  $‎ 1,490.40

  https://phillthebox.com

  8. Fundfactory Ink and toner Cartridges drive

  $19.15

  http://www.fundingfactory.com/goal/Rivers1wayticket

  9. Bonfire merchandise

  $‎ 264.07

  Smith Adoption Bonfire Merchandise Store

  10. Private cash donations

  $1300.00

  For the Godfrey family, here is there adopttogether profile. We have done Noonday shows for them as well.

  https://adopttogether.herokuapp.com/families/the-godfreys

  For the Adkison family, here is their adopttogether profile.

  http://adopttogether.org/families/the-adkisons

  Here is the link to the Adkison family Facebook group and shopping link for their Noonday show:

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/841484320293641/?ref=share&mibextid=S66gvF

  https://bit.ly/adkisonadoptionnoonday

  We chose Liberia, because in 2016, my dear friend, Devon, had her heart set on Blessing, a 6 year old little girl, waiting for a family in Liberia. Liberia was closed to adoptions, and I introduced her to Jim Savley, founder of Small World Adoption Agency, who had taken me to Eastern Europe in 1998, and sparked an interest in adoption facilitation, that has now been replaced as more of a volcanic passion for adoption facilitation. Mr. Savley said it would take a long time, but he would pursue every open door and window he could find to create a program in Liberia for adoption. It took 7 years to get Blessing home. She is thriving today in Tennessee. It took 5 years to get a smooth program in Liberia, and nearly 50 children completed their adoption before Blessing, and many other after.

  We are waiting on Liberia to approve our adoption, which could occur any day. Then, we will travel 2 months following that approval. We started our Liberian adoption pursuit 287 days ago. We have fundraised $22,615.28 from other people. People with good intentions.

  We are so grateful for adopttogether and wish we would have found you sooner!

• Update 27

  

  Day 279. Adopt from Liberia

  January 2, 2023

  Day 279. Adopt from Liberia. Noonday for others.

  January 2, 2023Adopt100more
  This is one of those important milestones I had hoped for. That chapter in our adoption where we are just waiting and winding down our fundraising to the reachable range. We lack just $12k out of $75k. Feels like nothing after such a huge amount of progress over the last 279 days.

  We have so many fundraising seeds planted and we trust they will continue to grow and that you, our group of supporters, continue to throw your extra $30 or so our way when you can. We are grateful for the ink cartridges and clothing and shoes donated. We are grateful for the noonday purchases that fuel 2 purposes of peace (adoption and fair trade in developing countries).

  We have faith and confidence that our fundraising efforts are in motion and are excited to help another family that is at their beginning phases of adopting from Liberia.

  We have a Noonday show going for them on Facebook and it’s already doing well. It’s a nice distraction from the empty waiting we are doing.

  We mailed a package to River and Sadie (our 2 littles waiting in Liberia) and they should have it in their hands tomorrow. Mailing things internationally is complicated and full of things we aren’t used to.

  We hope to hear from Liberia soon. Our Dossier was mailed to them 46 days ago. So it has probably been on someone’s desk for about a month. Averages on this vary widely. Anywhere from 1 week to 4 months to get approved, plus 2 more months to get court dates and then schedule travel.

  So the deafening wait on “yes, you may proceed” is broken up by the Adkison adoption journey.

  Click here to shop and support Noonday and this sweet couple adopting:

  https://bit.ly/adkisonadoptionnoonday

  Today for our Noonday post for the Adkison family, I told Sham’s story. He is a Noonday artisan in India who is a leader in his community working to adjust the public opinion of women, their worth and their career possibilities. He is a father of 3 little girls and he and his wife are committed to carving out a corner for their community to reach ours in commerce and fair trade. I’m so inspired by Sham’s example amidst violence and poverty and lack of opportunity for women in India. He stands as a force for good, one handmade product at a time.

  Thanks for being here today to listen.:)

  Keep…. ….going.

• Update 26

  

  Day 259. Adopt from Liberia! Christmas songs…

  December 13, 2022

  https://adopt100morehappykids.wordpress.com/2022/12/13/day-259-adopt-from-liberia-christmas-songs/

  Click here for our most recent update!!

• Update 25

  

  Day 244. Giving Tuesday.

  November 28, 2022

  Day 244. Adopt from Liberia. Missing her birthday and Giving Tuesday.

  November 28, 2022Adopt100more
  I’m not sure how this post is going to go. It needs to serve as an update on our adoption. It needs to provide an opportunity for giving Tuesday to benefit my 2 children, currently in the process of rescue from orphanism. It needs to be an outlet for me to ask for encouragement and assistance on what to do about the fosters, without telling anyone what we know about the fosters. Lastly, it needs to serve as my anchor to the belief that miracles don’t look like miracles, until the end. Before they reach “miracle status” they are impossible.

  We have this unexpected delay because I think God is moving somewhere else.

  My friend and pastor, Paul Irminger, did a great job on Sunday delivering a message about time leading up to the “miracle” of the birth of John the Baptist. The time spent by Zechariah in silence because he asked for extra assurances. The extra time after John’s birth that Zechariah stayed mute, until the official ceremonial naming of John.

  As a side note, it’s interesting to be friends with your pastor and his family. Like real friends who are also neighbors that can see my driveway at any time and frequent my house without me needing to pick up anything or worry about judgement. If you ever want to try a church with a leader that has zero judgment and 100% truth with a place at his table for anyone who wants an invitation, let me know and I can introduce you.

  One thing that I keep coming back to is “How To” spend more time in the presence of God as the miracle of these adoptions unfold as the tragedy of the fosters perpetuates alongside us. That’s the thing I took away from the sermon this week about Zechariah and his need for assurance.

  We have this unexpected delay because I think God is moving somewhere else.

  When the miracle occurs, this will all make sense.

  The reason to spend time in the presence of God, is to prepare for the miracle so we can receive it and use it in the way it was designed.

  I just don’t want to work on the wrong thing and miss the miracle. And I often forget the impossibility that must be endured before an event can reach miracle status.

  Missing Sadie’s birthday.

  I focused on 12/1 in our adoption fundraising to get everyone excited. I did not lie. It was possible to get there, it just wasn’t likely. So why not ask for it? It is hard for me to not have my feet on Liberian soil for my youngest daughter’s 5th birthday.

  I confess I used it to help our fundraising. I just didn’t want money to be the reason we could not go. It is part of my personality type, I guess. I have the same personality type as Donald Trump. And if you know me, and you think about it for a sec, you’re laughing a little right now. ESTP. Me and the commonalities I have with Donald, are analyzing our next move…a bit defeated…

  We have this unexpected delay because I think God is moving somewhere else.

  I used the “Donald” in me to sell an idea, and prayed for God to bless it. And He did.

  To date, we have found $56,987.69 to put towards our adoption. That money came from everywhere, but especially from Jeremy. I married Jeremy for lots of reasons. Most of the best reasons I am grateful for that decision is stuff I discovered after I married him. One big one was when he quit his job for his daughters.

  We have this unexpected delay because I think God is moving somewhere else.

  Jeremy quit his job for 3 reasons.

  1. Our daughters both here and overseas needed more of him during this time in their childhood.

  2. We could cash out his retirement and call it “early retirement” and donate that chunk to our adoption, saving us 6 months of time.

  3. He did not enjoy his job, and unless we are starving, why do something you aren’t called to do? Even if you are really good at it, no reason to be trapped.

  Thankful for Jeremy’s heart.

  We have this unexpected delay that is actually more consistent with what was our realistic expected timeline. The “Donald Trump” in me is indignant the stars did not align to match our effort, the effort of the village of support that is waiting to see the miracle.

  We have this unexpected delay because I think God is moving somewhere else.

  Thomas Edison was an inventor that never quit. (Also ESTP personality type like me). Although the genius behind his mind is one that is nothing like me, the ability to change gears and look at things a different way to still make it work, maybe even make it better… and to keep…. …..going.

  So in the meantime of waiting for our Liberian daughters to come home, and surrendering my barely realistic game of fundraising just to see if we could do it, I’m now forced to turn more inward.

  We have this unexpected delay because I think God is moving somewhere else.

  Realistic international adoptions take 2-4 years.

  Miracle international adoptions take 12-18 months.

  We are in our 7th month of pursuing adoption from Liberia in general. We are in our 4th month of pursuing the specific adoption of River and Sadie.

  I am so glad Sadie’s birthday is still on the minds and hearts of so many of you and so many of your children, as it comes up in conversation with me a lot. She will need that when she gets here. She has no idea when her birthday is. Thank you for celebrating with me when I could not celebrate with her.

  We have this unexpected delay because I think God is moving somewhere else.

  We are in our 22nd month of choosing to love in perpetuity two little fosters, and the open agreement between us and those girls that we are always here. From the first day you crossed our doorstep, until the last day you take a breath, our family is your family. In all the perpetuity that can be found as equal as any of our daughters, we hold space in our heart and our house, for you.

  As I feel the need to sort of “go dark” to try to reason out how to get God’s assurances again, I won’t give in to that part of my human heart today.

  We will miss Sadie’s 5th birthday. I used her birthday as a way to market their adoption and all adoptions. Thank you for investing in our ideas.

  I am as available and obedient to God as I can find ways to be. And in that availability and that obedience, I am so angry and frustrated about the things I can see combined with the things I can’t see.
  The mother in me and the humanity in me values time so much. 6 months is too long. So as I lay down my anger and wipe my tears and find a way to “get up” after learning all the things I learned about all of my displaced daughters over the last 3 weeks, I will stop gritting my teeth and silent my screaming heart that nothing makes sense. I will gratefully hug the ones I can reach, and try to be assured that this extra time is not a weapon formed against me, but a tool God has a miracle planned for. As I walk through empty bedrooms in my house and am aware of the uselessness they seem to have, I will wait with a heart of gratitude and I will choose peace, even when earthly peace cannot be found.

  Because I know God is listening. I know He is moving on the behalf of these children. I know He is working. I know He is speaking to me. The same way He knew my little house in Tennessee haunted me with empty bedrooms 10 years ago, as I sat in silence, waiting, for just one baby. We got 2 at a time and then an extra one right after that. I needed every inch of that house.

  The last reason I need this blog is to respond to God in a public and obedient way that although God knows my heart and my frustration and my impatience, I will again choose to set those things aside and agree with this one assurance I firmly believe.

  We have this unexpected delay because I think God is moving somewhere else.

  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

  Romans 8:38-39

• Update 24

  

  Day 224. World Adoption Day. Speak for the Speechless.

  November 8, 2022

  Speak for the speechless. Day 224. Adopt from Liberia. World Adoption Day is tomorrow.
  November 8, 2022Adopt100more
  This adoption brings me to my knees every day. Often leaves me speechless. But I can’t be speechless, because my voice is their voice. And they can’t be heard without adults like me, connecting with adults like you.

  BE NICE.

  Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;ensure justice for those being crushed. Psalm 31:8
  Trying to find a way to connect in the right way at the right time without disrupting other important things, but finding more desperate need every day is an endless puzzle.

  Be nice.

  I keep telling myself to be nice. Be nice to people that might help you. Be a source of encouragement and inspire with positivity and don’t scare anyone off.

  Be nice.

  So how do I be nice about female circumcision most commonly done in 3-5 year old little girls all over Africa?

  How do I find a way to be nice when orphans are placed because there is no food and no resources but somehow caregivers found a way to do that.

  It’s cultural. It’s a legacy lie and now a legacy sin. It’s a lie from the pits of hell so outlandish, and yet such a deeply held belief that this “rite of mutilation” is firmly held as necessary. The legacy lie states they will somehow be able to be good wives and good mothers and faithful to their spouses because removing an organ part of the sexual reproductive system will cure an “insatiable need for sex” that somehow will destroy their families for generations to come.

  Goodness.

  BE NICE.

  Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;ensure justice for those being crushed. Psalm 31:8
  Makes me sad. Removing a child’s clitoris does not make enjoying sex impossible. It will destroy everything else about trust and safety and peace they held dear before a caregiver went down that road of mutilation and abuse.

  I read yesterday that usually a grandmother performs the ritual.

  Be nice.

  BE NICE.

  Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;ensure justice for those being crushed. Psalm 31:8
  Also, as a side note, there are lots of fundraisers out there to help survivors of this mutilation find healing and peace. Surgical repair is available. But reconstructive surgery is expensive.

  Be nice.

  BE NICE.

  Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;ensure justice for those being crushed. Psalm 31:8
  Kids are starving and getting mutilated and living in war torn countries sick from simply preventable and treatable diseases.

  Millions need families.

  The sooner my daughters exit Liberia, the sooner they get to fully embrace safety and peace.

  I wonder if they fear me. Fear that I will blindfold them, take a knife to their most neurologically sensitive areas, and then brand them on their back with scars to sign my work?

  How many nights will pass before they ask one of my other children if that’s what happens here? And brace themselves for the possibility?

  Be nice.

  BE NICE.

  Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;ensure justice for those being crushed. Psalm 31:8
  It’s tough. Tough to be nice. Tough to get off my knees after the wind was knocked out of me when I found out this happens to 1/2 the girls in Africa before they turn 5.

  In honor of world adoption day and all the excitement that occurs with celebrating the massive world networking supported by our generation’s leadership in those founders for Adopttogether, Noonday, Give send go, Small World Adoption Agency, Phill the box, Funds2orgs and so many others, I am proud to stand with you as we rewrite the possibilities of orphans and push our way in to educate all matriarchs that this legacy lie stops here. We do not cut them. We do not starve them. We do not sell them. We do not buy them. We do not file down their teeth so they are easier to sell and can’t fight back.

  Kids are important. People are good.

  Yesterday, I was speechless as I learned the gravity of female circumcision for 5 year old girls. Took my breath, stole my words, knocked me down, and stole my “nice”.

  Today, I can’t wait to get my feet on Liberian soil and find a grandmother to befriend, and educate. With an anatomy book and a hug and the truth. I will be nice.

  Clock is ticking for you to help us get their faster. Pray the Liberian government take 3 days to sign off on our Dossier. Pray we get a court date in December. Pray we get the money to go soon. Pray I find the strength to BE NICE, because that’s the only way to fix a lie. The truth, in a way that it can be received in the spirit it is meant to be received. So that change happens and healing begins.

  BE NICE.

  Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;ensure justice for those being crushed. Psalm 31:8
  Ways you can help:

  Click here to help with our adoption

  https://adopt100morehappykids.wordpress.com/2022/11/07/ways-to-help-with-our-adoption/

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